Page 256 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

254  CENTR AL INDIA

u Omkareshwar
East Nimar district. 77 km (48 miles) SE
of Indore. £ @ 4 n MP Tourism,
Narmada Resort, (07280) 271 455. Sri
Omkar Mandhata Temple: Open 7am–
6pm daily. Siddhnath Temple:
Open 5am–6pm daily. _ Shivratri
(Feb/Mar), Kartika Purnima (Oct/Nov).
The island of Omkareshwar, at
the confluence of the Narmada
and Kaveri rivers, is one of India’s
most enchanting pilgrimage
towns. Seen from above, it is
Maheshwar’s fort, shrines and ghats, along the Narmada shaped like the sacred Om
symbol. The island is 2-km
y Maheshwar cenotaphs of the Holkar rulers, (1-mile) long and 1-km (0.6-mile)
and is usually thronged with wide, with jagged cliffs on its
West Nimar district. 90 km (56 miles)
SW of Indore. * 19,600. £ Barwaha, pilgrims taking a dip. A magnifi - southern and eastern sides. It
39 km (24 miles) E of town centre, cent fan-shaped stairway leads is dotted with temples, sadhus’
then taxi or bus. @ n MP Tourism, from the river front to Maheshwar caves and bathing ghats, and
Narmada Resort, (07283) 27 3455. Fort’s royal enclosure, and the filled with the sound of chanting.
_ Panchkosi Yatra (Mar). Ahilyeshwar Temple, built in A circumambulatory path leads
1798. The richly carved around the island, marking out
Picturesquely sited courtyard, leading on the pilgrim trail. It is linked to
on the banks of the to the palace, has an the mainland by a concrete
Narmada, Maheshwar impressive statue of causeway, though visitors can
is an important Ahilyabai. This benevo- also come on the flat-bottomed
Hindu pilgrimage lent queen, who also barges that ply the river.
centre. It was the built the Vishwanath The island is dominated by the
site of the ancient Temple (see p209) towering white shikhara of the
city of Mahishmati, in Varanasi, was Sri Omkar Mandhata (“Bestower
mentioned in described by a British of Desires”) Temple, within Jabalpur
classical Sanskrit texts. colonial official, Sir which is a particularly sacred Bhedaghat • • Chausath
•
Maheshwar’s beautiful Statue of Queen Ahilyabai John Malcolm, as “one Shivalinga, one of 12 jyotirlingas Dhuandhar • Yogini Temple
temples and ghats of the purest and most (natural rock lingas said to • Hoshangabad Falls Amarkantak •
were erected by Queen Ahilyabai exemplary rulers that ever lived”. have miraculously emerged Mandla •
of the Holkar dynasty (see p250), Also within the fort is the from light) in the country. GUJARAT Maheshwar
in the mid-18th century. Rehwa Weavers’ Society, where At the eastern end of the island • Omkareshwar MADHYA PRADESH
•
The 1.5-km (1-mile) long river the famous gossamer-fine is the 13th-century Siddhnath Sardar Sarovar Dam
•
front is dotted with shrines, Maheshwari cotton and silk Temple, which has beautiful
ghats and the elegant textiles are woven. sculptures of apsaras. The north- MAHARASHTRA
ern end has a cluster of Hindu and Arabian
Sea
Jain temples. Over looking them
The Narmada Dam Controversy is a ruined palace, part of a
Since the mid-1980s, an ambitious scheme to dam the Narmada fortified township that stood here
has been embroiled in controversy. The Narmada Valley Authority until it was sacked by Muslim
claim that the Sardar Sarovar Dam will bring electricity, irrigation invaders in the 11th century.
and drinking water to millions of people. Environmental activists
opposing the dam – including Medha Patkar, leader of the “Save
the Narmada” Movement, and Arundhati
Roy, the 1997 Booker Prize-winning
author – say that the dam will inundate
some 37,000 ha (91,429 acres) of forest,
and displace more than 200,000
villagers, most of them poor tribal
people, whose distinctive culture and
means of livelihood will be wiped out
along with their lands. The Supreme
Court of India has now ruled that
work on the dam can continue.
When completed, it will be the
Anti-dam activists at a second largest in the world, after
protest meeting the Three Gorges Dam in China. A pilgrim praying on the banks of the
Narmada at Omkareshwar
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp696–7 and p710
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